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BIOSANDC.V.

CRAIG CZURY - BIO

 

CRAIG CZURY (poet, editor, arts advocate) earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from Wilkes University, where he was awarded the prestigious Norris Church Mailer Fellowship. Czury is the author of over 20 books of poetry, and his poems have been translated into Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian. He was the 2011 Laureate of the Ditët e Naimit International Albanian Poetry Festival in Macedonia, and served from 2010-2012 as Poet Laureate of Berks County, Pennsylvania.

Craig has also been awarded a variety of fellowships to conduct his collaborative “poem fusion” performances and poetry mural projects. Working with AmeriCorps*Writers Corp in Washington DC in the 1990’s, he conducted poetry workshops with inmates at St. Elizabeth’s Psychiatric Hospital, fifty years after Ezra Pound was imprisoned there. In 1999, through an Americans For The Arts artist exchange fellowship, Czury developed a BBC Radio FOYL poetry performance through the Derry Playhouse, the result of workshops with both the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland. Most recently, his fellowship through the F. Lammot Belin Scholarship for Artists, allowed him to create  "docu-poems" from a collage of voices he gathered from interviews he conducted while hitchhiking rural roads during the height of the Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling in that region.

Czury has spent a lifetime creating energetic poetry performances and poetry environments around the world - in schools, communities, homeless shelters, prisons, and mental hospitals. He teaches, writes, and plays harmonica in both Europe and the US.     
www.craigczury.com

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CRAIG CZURY - CURRICULUM VITAE
 

 

CRAIG CZURY

www.craigczury.com  

Springville, PA, USA | Soncino, CR, ITALY   

 

EDUCATION

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) Creative Writing, Wilkes University, June 2008.

MFA Thesis: CLICK - Mix-Genre Poetry, Nonfiction.

 

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

English language. Poetry. Poetry writing workshops. Poetry as healing.
World poetry literature. Collaborative multi-voice poetry composition & performance. Poetry murals. Community documentary through interviews & writing oral tales.

 

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

2010-2017   Part-time Lecturer, Albright College, Reading, PA.

1984-2019   The Craig Czury International Poetry Project
                      Public poetry projects  in schools, universities, community centers,   

                      prisons, homeless shelters, women’s, shelters, mental hospitals.

 

AWARDS

Skenderbeu Prize, International Literary Meetings "Azem Shkreli",
     16th Edition. Peja, Kosovo, 2018.

F. Lammot Belin Scholarship for Artists, Waverly PA, USA, 2012.

Ditet E Naimet Laureate, International Albanian Poetry Festival.

     Tetovo, Macedonia, 2011.

Poet Laureate of Berks County, Reading PA, USA, 2010-12.

Key to the City of Scranton, Scranton PA, USA, 1993.

First Book Award, Montana Arts Council, Missoula MT, USA 1980.

 

INTERNATIONAL POETRY FESTIVALS

2018    International Literary Meetings “Azem Shkreli”. Peja, Kosovë.

2016    Festival Internazionale di Poesia Virgilio.   Mantova, Italy.

2016   "La Palabra En El Mundo", Festival Internazionale di Poesia, X Edizione, 

             Venice, Italy.

2014    Universidad Arturo Prat de Estado de Chile, Festival and Book Launch for

             “So Far…So Close: Contemporary Writers  of Tarapacá and 

             Pennsylvania”.  Iquique, Chile.

2013    P.E.N. International. Istanbul, Turkey.

2012    International Poetry Festival. Rosario, Argentina.

2012    International Poetry Festival V.I.P. “Sarajevo Winter”.
             Sarajevo & Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovena.

2011    Poetry Festival “Ditët E Naimet 2011”  Laureate and Honorary Member.

             Tetova, Macedonia.

2006    Poetry Festival “Ditët E Naimet 2006”.  Tetova, Macedonia.

2005    Ovid International Poetry Festival. Bucharest, Romania.

2004    Literature Live Festival, International P.E.N. Zagreb, Croatia.

2004    Poetry Festival “Ditët E Naimet 2004”.  Tetova, Macedonia.

2004    International Poetry Festival of Medellín. Medellín & Bogata, Colombia.

2003    Rosario International Poetry Festival. Rosario, Argentina.

2003    Junin Literary Festival. Junin, Argentina.

1999-2004   Poetry Autumn Festivals, International P.E.N. Druskininkai, Lithuania.

1999    Poetry Spring International Poetry Festival, Lithuanian Writers Union. 

             Vilnius, Lithuania.

1998    Gerard Manley Hopkins Poetry Festival. Monesterevan, Ireland.

1988-2000   Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Poetry Festival. New Jersey, USA.

 

SMALL SAMPLING OF UNIVERSITY READINGS, LECTURES, WORKSHOPS

2018    State University of Tetova, Department of Albanian Language and Literature.           

             Tetovë, Republika e Maqedonisë (Macedonia). With Albanian PEN Center.

2018    University of Tirana, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Department of English

             Language & Literature. Tiranë, Shqipëri (Albania). With Albanian PEN Center.

2018    University "Fan S. Noli”. Korçë, Shqipëri (Albania). With Albanian PEN Center.

2016    British Council, Milano, Italia: Teachers' Development Workshop and       

             Poetry Reading. Milano, Italy.

2016    St. Bonaventure Univ.,  Poetry Reading, English Department. Olean, NY.

2016    Pennsylvania Writers Conference: Multi-Media Poetry Performance. 

             Wilkes University. Wilkes-Barre, PA.

2015    Pennsylvania College English Association:  Conference Panelist and 

             Presenter. University of Scranton, Scranton, PA.

2014    Fracking PA: Documentary Practice and Environmental Activism,   

             collaborative poetry with photographs and panel talk / poetry reading. 

             St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s, MD.

2013    Critical Pedagogy & Creative Writing Workshop, Poem Fusion Lecture 

             & Demonstration. Manhattanville College, Manhattanville, N.Y.

2010    University of Montana Western, Guest Lecturer. Dillon, MT.

2010    EAPSU (English Association for Pennsylvania State Universities)  

             Conference. Lock Haven University, Loch Haven, PA.

2009    Montana Tech of the University of Montana, National Summit of  

             Mining Communities, Keynote Speaker. Butte, MT.

2009    University of Montana Western, Guest Lecturer. Dillon, MT.

2005-10 Kutztown University, Guest Lecturer, English Professional Writing 

                Program. Kutztown, PA.

2005     Eminescu National College, Visiting Poet. Bucharest, Romania.

1999     Univ. of Vilnius, Dept. English Philology Poem Fusion. Vilnius, Lithuania.

 

SMALL SAMPLING OF POETRY PROJECTS IN SCHOOLS & COMMUNITIES

2016-2019     Istituto di Istruzione Superiore Galileo Galilei, Poem Fusion Project, 
                        Special Project Coordinator, Crema, CR, Italy

2008-2017     The Maret School, Poet-In-Residence, Lower, Middle & Upper Schools.         

                         Washington, DC.
2007-2010     Cultural Alliance of York, Poet-In-Residence, Children’s Home of York,

                         York County Prison. York, PA.
2004-2005     Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Teaching. Poetry Consultant,

                         Millersville University. Millersville, Pa.
2004                Carcel Bellavista (prison). Medellín, Colombia.
2002-2003      Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts, consultant.
1999                The Playhouse, Poet-In-Residence, Derry, Northern Ireland.        

                         Project with  Americans for the Arts, broadcast on BBC Radio.
1999-2004      Altigimimo High School, Visiting Poet. Druskininkai, Lithuania.
1999                Pushkinskaya 10, Poem Fusion Workshop, St. Petersburg, Russia.

1998-2002      National Endowment for the Arts, Berks Poem Fusion Project, 

                         through Berks Arts Council, Community Poem Fusion Documentary,        

                         Poem Fusions at schools, afterschool programs, homeless shelters,         

                         mental hospitals, prisons, parks, community centers. Berks Co., PA.
1998-2004      Berks Poetry Project, Curator, Poem Fusion workshops at Berks Co.

                         Juvenile Detention Center, Reading Emergency Shelter. Reading, PA.
1997-2000      Police Athletic League of Reading PA~ Mentoring & the Arts Project.
1996-2000      Arlington Humanities Council, Visiting Poet to Schools, Arlington,VA

1995-1996      AmeriCorps*WritersCorps Project. Washington, D.C.
1995-2002      New Jersey Council on the Arts, Arts-In-Education rostered artist.

1991-1993      Kutztown University, Academic Alliance and Project Adelante,         

                         K.U. Dept. of Education and Allentown School District.

1993-2007      Very Special Arts Delaware - rostered artist.  Wilmington, DE.
1993-2011      Capitol School District, Poet-In-Residence, Dover, DE.

1995-1996      Berks Arts Council, Young Authors Festival (coordinator) workshop

                         for teachers, Reading, PA.

1988-1991      Susquehanna Univ., Summer Writers Conference, Selinsgrove, PA.

1993-2011      Tower Hill School, Poetry Residency, Wilmington, DE.
1988-2007      Delaware Division on the Arts, Arts-In-Education rostered artist.
1988-2000      Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, poetry consultant, N.J. schools.

1989-1990      New Jersey Council for the Arts, Arts-In-Education rostered artist.
1988-2002      N.E. Intermediate Unit #19, Living Arts Program, Visiting Poet, PA.

1984-2015      Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Arts-In-Education roster artist. 

NEWSFEED​
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